ScienceHideout
Hazard to Others
Posts: 391
Registered: 12-3-2011
Location: In the Source
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Mood: High Spin
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Let's learn from the Old(er)!
Even though I have bio this year, my favorite person in the whole school is the chem teacher, Mrs. HL (Everyone calls her HCl). It is no doubt she is
mid 60's... lots of experience. She is a fun, nice lady (who just got a hip replacement... doing better) and is no more than 5' tall.
We were talking about lab accidents. She had this colleague who was making a solution in the hood of H2SO4. He carefully walked the H2SO4 to the hood
to make a solution. He was about to take it back, when the handle finger thumb thing fell off the 2.5L bottle. We have all mopped ourselves into
corners, but this was different. H2SO4 ate the bottoms of his shoes and some of his pants, and he was alone. So, to avoid the puddle the only thing he
could do is flood the room, so he turned on all of the hood's water jets and clogged the sink with paper towels. After he got out of this mess (with
no burns!) he was discussing it all AT LUNCH... lol. Well, at least the floor is pretty clean.
A couple morals...
a) Although it gets the floor shiny, H2SO4 is not a reccomended substitute for Mr. Clean.
b) Always make sure someone is near the lab
c) Provide a plastic container as secondary containment when transporting acids.
So... I ask you. Anything you've learned from your older friends?
A couple more things she taught me...
Weigh NaOH on the lid of the container
The pennyhead is so you can hold it between your fingers
Oh... once she got a bead of NaOH on her shirt, and she flicked it off! It was funny. She then poured the excess NaOH down the drain saying "It's good
drain cleaner". I love her! 
hey, if you are reading this, I can't U2U, but you are always welcome to send me an email!
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Adas
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Registered: 21-9-2011
Location: Slovakia
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Mood: Sensitive to shock and friction
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I am jealous!
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MagicJigPipe
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Registered: 19-9-2007
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I wouldn't weigh NaOH on the lid of the container because, as you are doing this, the bulk is absorbing H2O and CO2.
What's the reasoning behind this "rule"?
"There must be no barriers to freedom of inquiry ... There is no place for dogma in science. The scientist is free, and must be free to ask any
question, to doubt any assertion, to seek for any evidence, to correct any errors. ... We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it and
that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. And we know that as long as men are free to ask what they must, free to say what they think,
free to think what they will, freedom can never be lost, and science can never regress." -J. Robert Oppenheimer
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gutter_ca
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Posts: 173
Registered: 7-6-2010
Location: California
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Mood: Bored at work!
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So.... You're learning chemistry from a chemistry teacher? Amazing!
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